Two people-smugglers were handed jail sentences by a court in Turkey on Thursday morning in the case of the death of 3-year-old Alan Kurdi — whose lifeless body became an enduring symbol of the ongoing refugee crisis in Europe when a photo of it was published across the world last year.

Syrian nationals Muwafaka Alabash and Asem Alfrhad were jailed for four years and two months in Bodrum on human-smuggling charges, but were acquitted of causing the deaths of five people through deliberate negligence, Turkey's Dogan News Agency reported.

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A woman hold a picture of Alan Kurdi during a vigil in Melbourne, Australia, Sep. 7, 2015.

The image of young Alan's body in a red T-shirt and shorts, lying face down in the surf, shocked the world when it was published by international media in September 2015. His brother, Galip, and mother, Rihan, also died in the ill-fated journey from Bodrum to the Greek island of Kos, but his father, Abdullah, survived.